Hermann Goering (1893-1946) was a Nazi leader. Goering had been a fighter pilot and celebrated air ace during the First World War, and led the squadron of Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) after von Richthofen had been killed.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and participated in the Beer Hall Putsch with Adolf Hitler. Following the failure of the attempted coup he fled to Sweden, returning to Germany in 1927 under amnesty. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1928 and became its President on 30 August 1932. Goering founded the Gestapo in 1933. He commanded the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) before and during World War II, and was in charge of the Four Year Plan. In one of the biggest blunders of the war, Goering convinced Hitler not to advance on the trapped allied forces at the Battle of Dunkirk because he wanted the air force to share in the glory of their destruction. Most of the trapped forces were taken aboard ships to England to fight another day.

In the final days of the war Martin Borman convinced Hitler to remove him from power. Goering later surrended to the Western Allies. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials. Hours before his execution, Goering committed suicide by cyanide, an embarrassment to his captors. Goering was a documented evolutionist.[1]